Over the past couple of months, Metro customers have been able to add stored value to their TAP cards at 22 ticket vending machines at Metro Rail stations.
The test of stored value has gone very well — so well, in fact, that Metro today is selling stored value at all ticket vending machines in Metro Rail and Orange Line stations. The machines will allow customers to add stored value in increments of $10, $20, $40, $80, $100 and $200. Cards also remain for sale at 22 machines — here are their locations.
In addition — and just as significant — the taptogo.net website now allows customers to put increments of $5, $10, $25 and $50 of stored value on their TAP cards (sign in, click on ‘fare products’ and then the arrows next to “fare description.’) This is especially convenient for those who don’t take Metro Rail and don’t have easy access to the ticket vending machines. The uber-alert L.A. Streetsblog site already seems extremely happy about this according to their post yesterday.
Stored value allows customers to put cash on their TAP cards and have the cost of single rides automatically deducted whenever they take the bus or train — just tap your card at the gate and go. It’s very convenient for Metro riders who don’t want to hassle with buying paper tickets before each ride, especially those who don’t ride enough to justify buying a daily, weekly or monthly pass.
Please bear in mind that this is still officially a test of the TAP system. Please feel free to provide feedback by leaving a comment with this post or emailing us at sourcemetro@gmail.com.
Metro is also working to eventually allow stored value to be added at vendors who sell TAP cards around Los Angeles County. That effort will be spread out over the next several weeks. Once available, you will be able to load increments of $5, $10, $15, $20, $40, $50, $80 and $100.
A special note of caution: all TAP card riders are reminded that they are REQUIRED to tap when boarding all trains and buses. If you are stopped by fare inspectors, you will be cited if stored value cards that had not been ‘tapped’ will be cited. It is not sufficient to have “cash value” on the card – you MUST TAP with each boarding.
@Ken
Yes, your TAP card is good for all transit systems that uses TAP. So if you top up $20 on taptogo.net, it’ll be good on Metro, Culver City Bus, etc.
I’ve topped up my original TAP with $20 cash value at Culver City since inception and it was good at all transit agencies from Metro to the Santa Clarita Valley Transit. I still have $10 left in it when I checked online.
It’d be nice to have ride history show up like Suica and HK’s Octopus Cards too though.
I use the North Hollywood station to load cash value for Santa Clarita since it is self-serve so yes money is fungible just not the passes.
The stored value money works on all the tap systems, no matter where you added it from.
How can we load stored value for commuter program transit vouchers?
If Im using metro with a friend lets say who does not have a tap card, can i tap a second time to pay for their fare? Because on most systems in other cities it seems that you can just slide or tap your fare media to the machine multiple times and it counts as additional fares. It would be really convenient to be able to do that because it would save a lot of time and would make going metro with friends a lot easier. Im curious if this is possible…